Theory about the true tragedy of the movie

In fact, you bring the discussion back to the original title of this thread - theory about the true tragedy of the movie.

In fact, the play and the movie are not about Mozart and Salieri as composers. First of all, Salieri was anything but inept: his music still gets performed today, but certainly not with the frequency of Mozart's. He was the top dog in Vienna at the time. It is very doubtful that he had any hand in Mozart's death. A lot of the conflict was simple royal court intrigue: Italian composers dominated the Vienna music scene at the time, and a kid coming from the boondocks (Salzburg) and making a big impact in the big city felt very threatening to them. However, Salieri had a long and fruitful career as a composer, conductor and teacher (pupils included Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt).

But the point that Peter Schaeffer makes with the play is envy that Salieri, the character, felt for this young genius, and how that envy not only had evil effects on those around him but drove Salieri into madness. In truth, Salieri suffered from dementia in the last year of his life (he lived to age 75), but he did not go insane. We call this a literary device. The play does not attempt to be historically accurate, only to provide psychological insight into what envy can do to a person - people that compare themselves to others become either vain or bitter.

Whether Salieri had an unhappy attraction to sweets is only a portion of the character that Schaeffer drew. As someone noted earlier, Vienna is hardly a bad place to satisfy a sweet tooth. I just restocked my supply of Manner Schnitten the other day (at a local deli, I need to get back over there).

In fact, you bring the discussion back to the original title of this thread - theory about the true tragedy of the movie.

In fact, the play and the movie are not about Mozart and Salieri as composers. First of all, Salieri was anything but inept: his music still gets performed today, but certainly not with the frequency of Mozart's. He was the top dog in Vienna at the time. It is very doubtful that he had any hand in Mozart's death. A lot of the conflict was simple royal court intrigue: Italian composers dominated the Vienna music scene at the time, and a kid coming from the boondocks (Salzburg) and making a big impact in the big city felt very threatening to them. However, Salieri had a long and fruitful career as a composer, conductor and teacher (pupils included Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt).

But the point that Peter Schaeffer makes with the play is envy that Salieri, the character, felt for this young genius, and how that envy not only had evil effects on those around him but drove Salieri into madness. In truth, Salieri suffered from dementia in the last year of his life (he lived to age 75), but he did not go insane. We call this a literary device. The play does not attempt to be historically accurate, only to provide psychological insight into what envy can do to a person - people that compare themselves to others become either vain or bitter.

Whether Salieri had an unhappy attraction to sweets is only a portion of the character that Schaeffer drew. As someone noted earlier, Vienna is hardly a bad place to satisfy a sweet tooth. I just restocked my supply of Manner Schnitten the other day (at a local deli, I need to get back over there).